1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for providing broadcasting service in a mobile communication system, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for providing television (“TV”) broadcasting service in a mobile communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication technology has been developed so drastically that it is expected that there will be no distinction between wired communication and wireless communication all around the globe in the future. In particular, the future communication systems such as IMT-2000 are intended to offer a variety of information including audio and video information to users in real time and on a large scale.
In the current development stage of communications, cellular phones and Personal Communication System (“PCS”) phones additionally provide wireless Internet access as well as text transmission, aside from conventional voice calls.
Meanwhile, research has been made on a digital TV system to maximize benefits that digital data may offer beyond real-time transmission of moving pictures in the form of digital data. Up to now, a great progress has been made in the process.
In particular, research and development on compression of video signals to digital data and real-time transmission of the digital data at high speed with good quality are showing favorable results. Therefore, many of the achievements will be put into practice for daily use. That is, transmission/reception of digital moving picture information is being carried out via terrestrial broadcasting systems and cable broadcasting systems.
However, existing mobile communication systems and digital TV systems presently fail to organically cooperate with each other, and therefore fail to maximize their advantages. In other words, they are confined to their own fields. For example, the digital TV systems provide high quality images and a variety of additional information only to digital TV sets though to Personal Computers (“PCs”) via the Internet in some cases, and the key services of the mobile communication systems are typically limited to voice calls and text transmissions.
If a future mobile communication system enables digital moving picture information to be provided to mobile terminals, it will be done via supplemental channels (“SCHs”) that have been proposed for packet data service. The SCHs are dedicated channels for communications between a base station (“BS”) and a mobile station (“MS”) on a one-to-one basis. Therefore, establishment of an SCH requires a procedure illustrated in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, an MS receives an Overhead Message including parameters from a BS at initial system acquisition in step 101. Then, when a packet service is requested, the MS sends an Origination Message to the BS in step 103. The BS sends an Ack Order for the Origination Message in step 105 and an Extended Channel Assignment Message to assign a fundamental channel (“FCH”) to the MS in step 107. In step 109, the MS and the BS set up traffic channels (i.e. FCHs). Then, the BS sends an Extended Supplemental Channel Message to the MS to assign an SCH in step 111. The FCH is used for voice call and the SCH, for packet communication. In step 113, the MS and the BS exchange packet data on established SCHs.
If a mobile communication service provider provides TV broadcasting service to users, this is broadcast free of charge in its literal sense. Therefore, when the TV broadcasting service is provided on existing SCHs, signaling overhead is generated during channel establishment and it is impossible to simultaneously provide the service to multiple users.